Books #71 & 72: Saga Vol. 5 & Bitch Planet Vol. 1
I was in a graphic novel mood.
Saga Vol. 5 came out a little while ago and I've had it sitting on my shelf, burning a hole in my brain. I'm surprised I resisted this long. It's so rare to find a series of books that not only consistently delivers on this level but manages to up the ante like this does. I can't give a plot summary - too much has gone on to give adequate context, and of course there's the spoiler problem - but let's just say it's abundantly clear that Brian K. Vaughn has an ambitious vision that he is well able to actualize, and I'm loving every page.
I heard about Bitch Planet Vol. 1 on NPR when the author, Kelly Sue DeConnick, was being interviewed. I only heard part of it, but I immediately thought, "Feminist hero!" and I was right. This graphic novel is a glorious start to a new series. DeConnick is funny, brilliant, and bitingly clever. The series takes place in a world in which the patriarchy reigns supreme and all of our latent sexist patterns are brutally and almost (but heartbreakingly, not quite) burlesque-ly visible. Women who don't "fit" - are too fat, too aggressive, too thin, too whatever - are deemed "non-compliant" and shipped off to a prison planet, AKA Bitch Planet. Interestingly, this series has spawned a viral trend in which women share "non-compliant" tattoos and other art. This first volume mostly takes place on Bitch Planet. A group of women prisoners are leveraged by the government into participating in a strange exhibition-game style sport, but there are hints that they can be subversive from the inside in spite of this. So far, the characters are hints and sketches, but this is just setting the stage. It even includes fake ads in between episodes that parody old-style comic book advertisements for mail orders, and they are hilarious. Everybody needs to read this and everybody needs to buy it - Kelly Sue DeConnick has a vision that deserves to be supported.
Saga Vol. 5 came out a little while ago and I've had it sitting on my shelf, burning a hole in my brain. I'm surprised I resisted this long. It's so rare to find a series of books that not only consistently delivers on this level but manages to up the ante like this does. I can't give a plot summary - too much has gone on to give adequate context, and of course there's the spoiler problem - but let's just say it's abundantly clear that Brian K. Vaughn has an ambitious vision that he is well able to actualize, and I'm loving every page.
I heard about Bitch Planet Vol. 1 on NPR when the author, Kelly Sue DeConnick, was being interviewed. I only heard part of it, but I immediately thought, "Feminist hero!" and I was right. This graphic novel is a glorious start to a new series. DeConnick is funny, brilliant, and bitingly clever. The series takes place in a world in which the patriarchy reigns supreme and all of our latent sexist patterns are brutally and almost (but heartbreakingly, not quite) burlesque-ly visible. Women who don't "fit" - are too fat, too aggressive, too thin, too whatever - are deemed "non-compliant" and shipped off to a prison planet, AKA Bitch Planet. Interestingly, this series has spawned a viral trend in which women share "non-compliant" tattoos and other art. This first volume mostly takes place on Bitch Planet. A group of women prisoners are leveraged by the government into participating in a strange exhibition-game style sport, but there are hints that they can be subversive from the inside in spite of this. So far, the characters are hints and sketches, but this is just setting the stage. It even includes fake ads in between episodes that parody old-style comic book advertisements for mail orders, and they are hilarious. Everybody needs to read this and everybody needs to buy it - Kelly Sue DeConnick has a vision that deserves to be supported.